Might need a car, no? Ideamerge - Europe car rental and leasing via Renault auto leases.
An article on Culture Shock:
IHT: Coping in a strange, new world
The best info I've found about the tax implications of moving abroad has not been online. Go figure.
I spent much of yesterday at the law library, and got reems of information. The Federal Income Tax is pretty easy to find information about, whereas the California State Income Tax is quite a bit more obscure. Check out "Tax Notes International", Volume 5, Oct 12, 1992, p 783 for a summary of state tax issues for all states. Some Federal sources: "Journal of Corporate Taxation", Volume 19, p 346, and "Tax Advisor", Sept 91, Volume 22, p567. Just head for InfoTrak or LegalTrak, and you can find even more references.
The legal library system isn't exactly Dewey Decimal -- it is alpha-numeric, which really slows down newbies. Be prepared to do some hiking through the stacks. The library I went to was huge.
California makes it very difficult to renounce residency until you move to another state, and they tax world-wide income, just like the Feds. The Feds, on the other hand, make it pretty dang easy to avoid tax, but I still don't understand the AMT issues. Between the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, and the pour-over Foreign Tax Credit, or just going with the Foreign Tax Credit, you can opt out fairly easy. How AMT doesn't just kick in and get you anyway doesn't make sense to me yet.
Currency rates: USD->EUR and EUR->USD (Yahoo Finance).
A newsletter: Parler Paris Bi-Monthly Newsletter France.
Something to see while in Paris: Palais de Tokyo.
Man, is this obsessive. Cool navigation. Les Photos de Villes
The blog of an American who apparently moved to Paris sometime in 2001. nil by mouth
We're sooo subscribing to Time Out: Paris if (when?) we arrive. The local version, Zurban
I picked up a copy of Learn to Speak French at CostCo for $16.99. The speech-recognition is good, but it's far too easy to mis-pronounce something horribly and still get a reasonably good score.
One big issue -- what do we do with our cars. Should we just sell them quickly for a pittance?
Or go with a high-end storage place?
Some issues and tips with going into auto storage and coming out again. Tips
A TimeOut type magazine about Paris. Metropole Paris 7.O6 - Mon, 4. Feb 2OO2
We'll have to consider joining the American Club. We visited some friends in Tokyo who were members of the American Club there, and it seemed like a good resource.
Just requsted a move quote from 123movers.com. Apparently sends the request to a number of moving companies in your city to let them bid on your move.
With any luck, my employer will consider some sort of outsourced relocation service. Another and another. Somehow I get the feeling that we're not the first ones to wade into these waters.
A list of relocation services (in French)
Some Paris-based services:
Service1
Service2
Service3
Service4
Service5
Service6
A relocation portal: Direct-Moving.com. More tax info, and a whole host of things about moving, living, cost-of-living, and such.
I'm not sure I believe the Cost-of-Living calculator. Apparently making say $100,000 in San Francisco is the same as $53,869 in Paris. Even normalizing for an apartment that as 1/3 or 1/4 the size, I don't see how this is true. A data point, at least.
Seems like someone's trying to run a business here. I wish them luck.
Another expat site. Expat Access.
A bit of a section on the numerous taxes that are an issue when working in France, and a very good Guide to the US Federal and State tax implications.
Most people can avoid the double tax, but I suspect we'll get whomped by AMT or some sort of dual-tax-home issue, as the earliest we can move will be April.
Short-term rentals from Rent in Paris.
Another and
another and yet
another.
At this point, we're considering a two-bedroom place to allow for visitors and our sanity. Currently we're in a 2450 square foot (227 square meter) flat in a semi-urban part of San Francisco. Leaving just about everything behind, I think we can downsize to a 75 square-meter place. Could be interesting.
AngloFrance.Net has a ton of information and classified ads. A lot is for tourists, but there's an Expat Guide as well.
The "France USA Contacts" or FUSAC page looks like a very good resource. The Annonces look useful for finding a temporary, if not overpriced, place to stay.
Where to live? Somewhere close to the Metro or other Public Transportation. We're looking forward to using the Metro instead of our car for a while.
In San Francisco, we have the Alliance Francaise. This might be a good place to start brushing up on our French. http://www.afsf.com/alliance30.html
At first this blog will be a list of resources that we've found as we consider relocating to Paris. When you start to drill-down on it, there are a lot of things to consider: Moving, Storage, Accomodation, Language, Taxes, Work Permits, Health Care, etc.